User blog:8bitjosh/And now, some advice
Alright. My last blog was harsh. Perhaps overly so. Honestly, I'm not a nice person when I rant. Usually, I'l complain by joking about something. But, that's not why I'm here. I'm here to offer you advice on actually getting started. Now, we do have a wiki page for this, but it isn't complete yet, and if this goes over well, I may add some of it to the page. so without further ado, here are my top 10 tips (in the order I thought of them) for getting started. I'll attempt to offer two pieces of commentary or explanation for all of them. 1) Don't play a cliche (with an exception) *We've all seen it, the abandoned foal, the hyperactive, overly friendly DJ, the musician. Lets face it, there are a lot of over used archetypes for characters. Your better off trying to find something that hasn't been done, then try to outclass another pony for the same role. *My exception to this rule: If you can bring something new and original to the role, then by all means, give it a shot. My character is a musician, but her talent isn't around her playing music, it's around her creating illusions to enhance her music, which is something I hadn't seen before. of course, I've seen illusionist ponies, and musician, but only one other pony that I met later in my RP had combined them. 2) Don't play a foal. Play an adult or a child *I'm not going to go in depth here, I did that in my rant last blog post. I'm just going to tell you that it's leagues easier to break into TP if your not a foal. It just is. *I would like to clarify, after reading a comment. that a foal is a baby, in this world, perhaps a toddler at the oldest. I have absolutely no problem with you playing a Filly or a Colt, and in fact, I think it's a fine Idea. We don't have a lot of either, and it's not done that often. so If you'd like to go with a child, go for it! :D 3) If your unsure of gender, go with a mare. *The main reason of this is that the gender ratio of mares to stallions is like, 10-1 in the show, so I'd suggest trying to stay in line with that. *Another thing, this is a girls TV show, so being a mare enables you to be, well, girly. 4) You can be a blank flank *If your really unsure about your cutie mark, just play a blank flank. not only does this allow you to hop into the RP a bit, but it could let you do an awesome scene where you discover your cutie mark later! :D *Alternatively, If you feel as though your on the verge of epiphany, you could just make the profile and lurk. 5)Speaking of lurking *'DO IT.' I cannot stress this enough. you will never become a better RPer if you don't watch people who are really good. if you looking for good people to follow, I'd recommend watching the manes and seeing who they interact with on a regular basis. *Lurking is also a great way to begin looking at who you'd like to RP with while you finalize your character. 6) Don't make your character to play with someone else *I mean, what if they never play with you, or grow bored of your RP? then where are you? that's right, your back to square one. *It's a better idea to mold your slightly hazy backstorybits into something that allows you to play with a player who you play with on a regular basis. I've done that a few times 7) Don't expect us to hand you the world on a silver platter *You can't waltz in and expect everyone to RP with you when you don't have any followers. It just isn't reasonable. *In addition, if you do that, we know nothing of your RP style, and at best, will be hesitant to RP. at worst, you'd get ignored. this leads nicely into my next point. 8) Play by yourself. *YESSSSSS. DO THIS. It gives us other players the opportunity to learn how you're playing the game. This is so vital to the core of TP, you really need to do this. I'll admit, I've fallen out of practice with this myself. *If your short on ideas, then do some normal stuff. go buy groceries, make yourself dinner. This is a slice of life RP, so show us some slices! 9) AVOID THE DRAMABOMB *Please do. Creating drama is something that will lose you a lot of followers and potential RP partners. *In the same Vein, keep your RP G rated. Kissing and such is OK in a ship, but keep that about PG rated. and avoid suggestive dialogue. That is in no way G rated at all. 10) Have fun with it! *Keep in mind, the main goal is to have fun. It isn;t to have the most followers, or the best RP. Honestly, I don't even know what my follower count is at right now. and I couldn't care less. I'm having to much fun being a pony to care! *And always be open to RP. You will have ponies who may interrupt you on the street to RP for a little bit, and be open to that. I would caution you, however, to check their tweets and see what kind of RP they do. That way you can avoide getting sucked into something you don't want to be sucked into Well, those are my top 10 tips. I honestly could have done around 15, but I didn;t want to hold you here for long. Keep in mind, these are my top ten tips, not yours. If you see something that wasn't on here, but was just as important, IYO, then post it in the comments. maybe I'll add it in. Category:Blog posts